TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel will increase the number of Palestinian workers it permits to enter its territory from the Gaza Strip, an Israeli defense body announced Wednesday, a gesture seemingly meant to bolster a fragile calm between the sides.
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Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinian residents have lived under a stifling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007, and unemployment and poverty is rampant. Israel says the closures are needed to contain the militant group.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said an additional 3,000 Gazans will be allowed into Israel to work, bringing the total of recently announced new permits to 10,000. COGAT said the decision was “conditional upon the continued preservation of the region’s security stability for the long term.”